The Charge

"One of the reasons we came to Midsomer was to enjoy the peace and
tranquility of the countryside."—Mrs. Barnabt

Opening Statement

Even as Inspector John Barnaby as his wife Sarah start on their second season
in the not-so-tranquil Midsomer County, they're still getting to know the place.
However, a countryside ramble in Midsomer usually means you're getting to know
murder suspects, as the cases in Midsomer Murders: Set 22 prove. Nine
more human bodies are added to the Midsomer death toll; a dog and a bird are
also among the victims this season.

Facts of the Case

Midsomer Murders: Set 22 features four TV movies, each on its own
disc.

• "The Sleeper Under the Hill"—Crowcall, Midsomer's very
own Stonehenge-like circle, now boasts its very own disembowled body. DI Ben
Jones (Jason Hughes, Dead Long Enough) runs into an old friend who ends
up among the dead. New coroner Kate Wilding (Tamzin Malleson,
Dangerfield) turns up at a crime scene.

• "The Night of the Stag"—Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon, The
Mrs. Bradley Mysteries) and Jones are looking for a missing revenuer. Sadly,
they didn't think to check the cider vat before Barnaby took a drink with that
special ingredient: fermenting corpse. Perhaps he should have listened to
Midsomer's old-timey temperance group—just this once, though.

• "A Sacred Trust"—A scary nun interrupts a woodland tryst.
Soon, vandals desecrate the priory—and a nun is found dead in the chicken
coop. Will the nuns keep a vow of silence on the case—or will they break
out laughing when Jones dons a habit to catch a killer?

• "A Rare Bird"—The Barnabys run into birdwatchers who've
been tweeting about a rare blue-crested hoopoe. Soon they battle about the
sighting—and one of their number becomes extinct.

The Evidence

What does a Midsomer husband say when his wife tells him she's pregnant?
"Whose is it?" is the answer that comes up amid the naughty goings-on in "A Rare
Bird." The TV movie also finds DCI John Barnaby making fowl double-entendres
with his wife as foreplay, DI Ben Jones getting called out of bed a little too
early in the evening, jokes about Lady Chatterly's Lover, and gratuitous
shots of a dance instructor who rarely seems to be out of her tight togs.
Naughtiness is just as much a part of the proceedings as the bizarre in
Midsomer Murders. If you watch, don't expect it to be cozy.

Even so, "The Night of the Stag" struck me as a nasty one, even by
Midsomer standards. Barnaby drinking a corpse was kind of sick, and a
Stag is a night of ritual rape—which Barnaby and Jones must stop. This one
hits hard—even in a show which had incest as the motive in its first
case—because, for the most part, sexuality is consensual. Fortunately,
Barnaby and Jones stop the would-be rapists in time, but it still may be
unsettling.

Neil Dudgeon is starting to shape up as a slightly more serious Inspector
Barnaby than John Nettles, who played DCI Tom Barnaby, his predecessor, for
years, even with the double-entendres in "A Rare Bird." It tends to make the
strange cases just a little more unsettling than they've been in the last few
sets of Nettles' run; I'll leave that up to you as to whether it's welcome. He
does try some "method detecting" in one episode, sampling vegetarian food to get
into the mind of a suspect who doesn't believe in meat, but for the most part,
his methods are traditional.

Fiona Dolman (Ultraviolet) as Sarah Barnaby gets involved in her
husband's cases, often digging for information in her capacity as school
headmaster, but she isn't finding corpses everywhere like Joyce Barnaby from
Series One. She does get stuff to do: handing a bullying incident at school,
joining an archaeological dig, and getting her husband into hiking. The couple
seems to exist on frozen ready meals, a touch which reveals them as a busy
career couple.

The cases are typical Midsomer, although subtler performances from
Dudgeon and Dolman change the tone a touch. The guest actors continue to be
over-the-top. I'm still betting on Matt Smith to become the eleventh Inspector
Barnaby around the show's fiftieth anniversary—or at least for Laura
Howard, who played the first Inspector Barnaby's daughter, to return as the
third Inspector Barnaby.

The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen image and Dolby 2.0 Stereo track are as
strong as any recent television production. An interesting featurette, "Midsomer
Murders in Conversation," finds Neil Dudgeon and Jason Hughes talking about the
changes in the show. They also talk about humming the show's theremin theme;
Dudgeon says he can't get it out of his head, and got caught humming it in a
supermarket, while Hughes says it's unhummable. After watching a few sets, I'll
go with Dudgeon's observation that it's a theme you can't clear your mind of,
especially if you're old enough to miss the days of TV theme songs. Crew members
are also featured, which is a nice touch. Fans of Sherlock might be amused to see a
clip of Mark Gatiss' demise.

Closing Statement

I found one episode on the shocking side, but otherwise Midsomer Murders:
Set 22 is a solid collection that'll please fans of the long-running series.
Newcomers could start here, but I'd recommend looking for a bargain on an older
set or, if it's in your area, checking out a few cases on TV. Now that Acorn has
nearly caught up, it might be nice if they start packaging each season
separately.